Ha. When I joked last week about the Plagues of Egypt, little did I realise what I was in for. I am now in the middle of my own Plagues of Wick.
It all began, you will recall, with the Plague of the Crashed Internet. Then came the second plague, The Nasty Cold (mostly better, thanks for asking). Next up, the Plague of Irritating Insect Bites. Now I’m suffering the Stiff Neck. What’s next? I dread to think. (Not sure if Running Out Of Milk on a Holiday Weekend counts, but that’s in the mix too.) I double-checked the house today, just in case I’ve been accidentally imprisoning any Israelites so I could officially let them go, but didn’t find anything…
Just a short blog this week, as today’s a holiday for the Queen’s jubilee, in which an entire nation congratulates the richest woman in Britain for still being alive. Walking round Wick yesterday we noted a distinct shortage of street parties and bunting, which seemed a shame as this was apparently just about the only part of the country not being rained on.
We watched some of the flotilla of boats on the Thames on tv, and great was our rejoicing when we discovered that we could select a satellite feed that gave us the pictures and sound without the commentary by the BBC’s presenters, who yapped away like a kennel full of puppies when it’s time for walkies.
I used to be something of a republican in my youth, but I’ve mellowed in my old age: I’m now in favour of keeping the monarchy but abolishing tv presenters.
Knitting. Free from earth’s gravity—or at least free from the gusset and knitting in the round—the second stage of my gansey is sailing majestically and rapidly on. As usual, it takes me about 15 minutes to do a row once the gansey is separated, so I’m managing four rows an hour. If I’m lucky I’ll get the back finished next weekend—maybe—depending on what Fate has in store for me.
For I’m well aware that I’ve only had four plagues so far. Other plagues lurking in the wings include The Plague of the Bit of a Headache, The Unexpectedly Large Heating Bill and The Chip in My Favourite Mug. These would, of course, all be bad; but worse by far than all of them combined would be The Plague of Making a Knitting Mistake When Margaret’s Not Around To Fix It… The horror!
The gansey is looking great in that repetitive pattern. I find, for me, that knitting errors happen more frequently with a repetitive pattern than with a more complex pattern – probably because of over confidence.
Yesterday’s flotilla was an impressive tribute to the Queen – I wish we had more coverage here in Canada but the highlights are great and I’m looking forward to the concert.
I’m finding I really like the simpler pattern on this gansey. Not being a television watcher, I am spared the blather. Maybe you could appease the plagues by attempting to bake bagels.
Agree with you about the BBC presenters. We were fortunate to have Gloriana moored by Richmond Bridge while they were finishing her in full view of passers by. It was an amazing sight.
The knitting gods are angry! You must rip out 12 rows of the gansey to appease them!
Hello all. Lynne, the only times I make mistakes are when I try to watch tv and knit at the same time. Partly it’s because I have to keep my glasses on for tv, and partly because I lose concentration!
Tamar – but without a tv, how do you watch cricket?! (What? Oh.) Bagels – haven’t made bagels for ages and now I want some. That’s this weekend sorted.
Jean, it was a shame about the weather, but the spectacle was impressive. I actually found the Dunkirk boats quite moving, thinking of what it must have been like, and what they achieved. (My suggestion for the jubilee would have been to have built a working replica of the Mary Rose.)
Dave, ha, nice one. There are of course 5 Knitting Gods: Cast, Knit, Purl, Cable and Bugger. They must be appeased by keeping all your loose ends in a tangle at the bottom of an old bag, which works like a sort of knitting dreamcatcher, bringing you good luck and happy projects. (At least I think they’re knitting gods – maybe they’re the heroes of a children’s tv series and go round solving crimes, I don’t know.)
Gordon
Wasn’t the whole point of Mary Rose that she was over-engineered and was so top heavy she sank on first launch? I couldn’t find a commentary-free coverage of anything, but ITV were vastly better.
Hi Freyalin,
That’s the basic explanation, but there have been other theories – they’ve discovered many of the crew were foreign, for example, suggesting that when trouble came they couldn’t respond to complex order, etc. But yeah, it’s probably not the best way to celebrate the jubilee!
Gordon
Well, you did say “working” replica. I admit my first response was “That’d be a first” but there have also been reports of openings too close to the waterline, etc.
Drat, now I want bagels.
Gordon,
How do you manage to be so funny AND concise? However you do it, you’re good! I’ve even got my husband hooked on your blog. Whenever I read it, I start laughing and call him. Today he even left off watching the football rehash to laugh alongside me. And the sweater is lovely.
Hi again Tamar, I always suspected some curious crewman saw a plug down in the hold that said “Under no circumstances remove this plug” and, well, you can guess the rest! Stay tuned for bagel pictures on Monday – I hope. If it does’t work I’ll pretend they were meant to be bread quoits all along…
Veronica, you’re very kind. As you can probably tell, writing is very important to me and I work hard at it – to give away trade secrets, I sometimes jot down images and ideas for the blog and play around with the words as I walk to work, to get the music sounding right in my head before I write the blog. (I agree with the great poet Alexander Pope: “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance/ As those move easiest who have learned to dance” – or in other words – practice!) But mostly I just have fun, and it’s great that other people are on the same wavelength. So thank you for indulging an old man.
Gordon
Bread quoits… with cheese straws for goals?